It was envisaged that should war
come, a majority of factory production would be concentrated on the war
effort. As this would result in a smaller number of clothes, food and
other household goods being produced, it was decided that there had to be a way
of allocating these limited goods equally and fairly to the population.
Rationing was born.

With the introduction of
rationing in the early days of world war two, much frustration came about.
Rationing saw images of ration cards, endless queues (though many of these
queues were more often for luxury goods such as cakes, sausages and sweets than
the more basic foods) and utility clothing.

The Minister of Food, Lord Woolton, offered novelty food suggestions such as whale meat
(whose odd flavour could only be subdued by overnight soaking in vinegar!), and such recipes as Woolton
Pie, carrot fudge, poor man's goose and sultana casserole. He also ensured every child under the age of
three received daily
milk, cod liver oil and orange juice to boost their vitamin intake and those
under five, cod liver oil. Free
school meals were also allocated to those children of poorer families.

Despite the British people having
to go without, on the whole rationing did mean that the nation was
much better fed than it had been in the 1930's. People preferred equality
to a free for all in which the 'well-off' would stockpile food and the poor go
hungry.

Undoubtedly while everyone was
hungry in wartime Britain, no one starved.

Although
rationing resulted in food being plain and boring throughout the war, it
effectively helped to win the war - as a Ministry of food advertisement
boasted;

‘Because
of the pail, the scraps were saved,

Because
of the scraps, the pigs were saved,

Because
of the pigs, the rations were saved,

Because
of the rations, the ships were saved,

Because
of the ships, the island was saved,

Because
of the island, the Empire was saved,

And
all because of the housewife's pail'

PICTURE:
Ration
cards were actually prepared in 1938, issued to the British general public on
Monday 8th September 1939 and started on 8th January 1940

A
tentative start was made with the introduction of rationing. Among
the first foods to be rationed were (in January 1940);

SUGAR

BUTTER

HAM

BACON
(this was later rationed by price rather than by weight).

This
was later followed by meat in March 1940 and tea (2 oz per person, weekly) in
July 1940.

These
items were later extended to include preserves (jam, margarine, syrups and
treacle), sweets, cheese, cooking fats and eggs (1 egg per person, weekly).

RATION
BOOKS

Everyone
had their own ration book to help them keep track of goods. These ration
books were full of coupons which were cut out and used to buy a fixed amount of
rationed foods each week/month. For example, each time
sugar was bought, the sugar coupon was handed over to the shop keeper.
This meant that if all of the sugar coupons were used up for the week, you had
to wait until the next week for more.

A
'point' scheme was introduced for non-rationed foods. Each person was
allocated a number of points and a selected range of foods was given a point
value. The consumer could choose how to spend these points.

MILK
and EGGS

Under
rationing milk and eggs were strictly controlled. Expectant mothers were
entitled to a little extra but even this was still less than what they had been
used to. Eggs were usually
substituted with the 'tasteless' dried powdered
eggs.

Land
previously used for dairy cattle was churned up for crop growth, making milk
availability even more scarce.

With
these clothing restrictions, much was done to encourage women to repair old
family clothes or 'recycle' old clothing by (for example) unravelling the wool
of old unwanted jumpers and knitting it into something else, and other such like
suggestions. Some of these unravelled sweaters were also knitted into
socks and scarves for the British troops.

Campaigns
like 'Mrs Sew-and-Sew' and 'Make Do and Mend' did much to bolster ideas, often
sparking off innovations of how to create new clothing using old
materials. It wasn't unheard of for old curtains to be made into skirts or
dresses, or for women to draw lines down the backs of their legs to give the
impression that they were wearing stockings! This stockings shortage being
of course as a result of many nylon factories being used during the Second World
War for the arms production.

OTHER
FORMS OF RATIONING

Also affected
by rationing were other goods like furniture.As people couldn’t replace or repair their homes, they grew shabbier as
the war went on.

Utility
furniture was designed to use as little wood and other raw materials as
possible. It was made available, however, only to newly weds and civilians who had
lost everything as a direct result of air raid bombings.

Designs of
materials used in the production of plates, saucepans and umbrellas were also
tightly controlled – as a example, cups were often white with no handles.

PETROL
RATIONING

Shortages of
petrol meant fewer vehicles on the road and a greater reliability on public
transport, which in itself was also restricted.

COSMETICS
RATIONING

Cosmetics such
as soap were also in short supply and as a consequence rationed.